« GOP Makes Blog Plans For Convention | Main | The Hill Hires Kos As Weekly Columnist »
December 05, 2007BELTWAY BLOGROLL
Huckabee's Rise Keeps Blog Guru Busy
The rising political fortunes of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee have been keeping his blog outreach expert busy.
Joe Carter of The Evangelical Outpost has been on the Huckabee payroll for only a few weeks, but Huckabee's poll numbers coincidentally have been climbing during that time. And as any candidate knows, a climb in the polls triggers a corresponding climb in bad press.
That means guys like Carter, whose title is research director, have to spend more of their time answering charges against their bosses. Carter has done that at his own blog by rebutting arguments that Huckabee is a tax lover and not a fiscal conservative. He also has done it by directly challenging Huckabee critics like The Club For Growth.
Now Carter is doing it by contacting conservative bloggers who help spread the negative word about his boss. A case in point: He e-mailed Jim Geraghty of The Campaign Spot twice in response to a post about the hot Huck topic of the week -- the candidate's role in releasing a serial rapist from prison who later killed a woman in Missouri.
Carter's new role as a voice for the campaign has earned him praise from some GOP quarters, but it also has made him a target for criticism. Blogs for Thompson, which supports Huckabee GOP rival Fred Thompson, blasted Carter for calling the Dumond episode an "unfortunate incident."
"That might by an apt description of a fender bender in the parking lot but not the preventable murder of an innocent woman," the blogger wrote. "A 'travesty of justice' is a better description."
Ironically, Carter was a Thompson backer, even going so far as to start Blogs For Fred back in the summer, until a few weeks before he joined the Huckabee campaign. (Read his co-authored Huckabee endorsement.)
UPDATE: Kingpin Kos and Atrios are using their newfound blog power to try to hang the Dumond baggage around a rising Huckabee's neck -- something Kos said they couldn't do in 2002 because they were "wee insignificant specks and our writings about the case got read by few."
Posted by Danny | 02:16 PM
